Familiar faces... and Lions coach Gatland

WHEN you walk into Stadium Waikato in Hamilton, you are greeted by a very familiar face.

There, up on the wall near the tunnel, amid a gallery of former greats, is a picture of a certain Warren Gatland, taken during his playing pomp in the early 1990s.

Gatland is very much an icon of Waikato rugby, having set an appearance record for the province between 1986 and 1994.

He’s also very proud of his roots, having grown up and gone to school here in Hamilton and having played his rugby here for so long.

As he said this week, if he was to be cut open, he would probably bleed red, yellow and black - the traditional colours of Waikato.

You can sense he’s glad to be back from the way he talks about the amazing support he has received from the people of his home community over the years.

And it will be a very special occasion for him when his Lions team takes on the Chiefs today at what he calls “a proper rugby ground” with a fantastic atmosphere created by the fans being so close to the action.

From personal experience, Gatland knows just how pumped up the home team will be and how much it would mean to them to beat the tourists.

That’s because he’s been in their shoes as a player and done just that.

It was back in 1993 that he was at the heart of a Waikato team which consigned the Lions to their worst ever provincial defeat.

The then 29-yearold hooker scored one of five tries in a 38-10 victory at Hamilton’s Rugby Park, which stood on the site of the current stadium.

There were some big names in the visiting ranks, with Will Carling skippering a side that also featured the likes of Stuart Barnes, Robert Jones, Mike Teague and Mick Galwey.

But Waikato were a team on a mission that day in late June, as Gatland recalled when looking back at the occasion.

“We had become New Zealand champions the year before,” he said.

“For us, it was an opportunity to play against Test players in front of a full house.

“We were pumped in the changing room. I just felt there was no team in the world would have beaten us that day. I don’t think the Lions touched the ball for the first 20 minutes.”

That victory was a real career high for Gatland, who was never to win a cap for the All Blacks despite being a squad regular.

He played 17 non-international matches for his country, but never got to play in a Test.

That was largely due to the presence of Sean Fitzpatrick and the fact replacements didn’t come off the bench as habitually as they do today.

But the former PE teacher has certainly made up for that on the international front as a coach, during spells with Ireland, Wales and three Lions tours.

He has won Grand Slams and already been at the helm of one Lions triumph, four years ago in Australia, as well as scooping up numerous trophies at club level with Wasps and his beloved Waikato.

But winning a Lions Test series here in the land of his birth, against the mighty All Blacks, would surely be the pinnacle.

And with the opening encounter of that campaign coming up at Eden Park on Saturday, this is a huge week in his life as he stops off in his home town before heading up to Auckland.

It’s also a week he has been planning for months, including the contentious call-ups which have hogged all the headlines.

Countless opinions have been expressed about the six additions to the squad, most of them negative, with Gatland being accused of devaluing the Lions jersey by selecting on proximity rather than ability.

But his sole concern all along has been doing everything possible to give himself and his players the best chance of beating the All Blacks, taking into account the tour schedule.

As such, he was intent on ensuring the Test team would be able to focus purely on the series opener this week.

That meant having to draft in players to provide sufficient numbers for the midweek games against the Chiefs and also the Hurricanes.

And he was always going to rely heavily on Wales and Scotland for reinforcements as they have been touring on the same continent and could slot straight in for today’s game.

You can argue more deserving players from other countries should have been brought in last week, giving them time to acclimatise to a different time zone, and you could argue there are some Scots that should be here ahead of some of the Welsh. But for Gatland, it was all about a means to an end and that end is winning the Test series.

If he achieves that goal, the call-ups will largely be forgotten. If he fails, they will be used as one of various sticks to beat him with. Such is the life of a coach. The six additions, including the